Iatrogenic Traffic Report

From Wikipedia: "An iatrogenic condition is a state of ill health or adverse effect caused by medical treatment, usually due to mistakes made in treatment."

Generally, it means that what the doctor used to treat the problem actually created a bigger problem. In other words, the cure is worse than the disease.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is normally a very light traffic day. Lot's of people take the day off to get ready for Thanksgiving. This morning on I-35 we were just flying along about 60 or 65 mps when we suddenly slow down. I began to lament to myself that on one of the best traffic days of the whole year, we don't get a break because someone had an accident.

We creep along for a mile or two, then I spot one of those TV vans sitting on an overpass with the big pole sticking up to transmit back to the station. Turns out, the TV van with the big pole was causing the slowdown.

So, covering the "traffic situation" is causing a traffic situation. The law of unintended consequences at work.